Death Race 2000

Did You Know?

• The score was composed by Paul Chihara, his first film music work, and critic Donald Guarisco described it as eclectic, mixing jazz, symphonic, funk, prog, and electronica.
• Shout! Factory released a Deluxe Edition DVD and Blu-ray on June 22, 2010, in Region 1/A.
• A direct-to-DVD sequel, Death Race 2050, was released in early 2017, inspired by similarities between the original film and The Hunger Games franchise.

Plot

After the 'World Crash of '79', the United States becomes a totalitarian regime under martial law. To pacify the population, the government creates the Transcontinental Road Race, where drivers race across the country and score points by striking and killing pedestrians. In 2000, the 20th annual race features five drivers with professional wrestling-style personas: Frankenstein, the mysterious black-garbed champion; Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, a Chicago gangster; Calamity Jane, a cowgirl; Matilda the Hun, a Neo-Nazi; and Nero the Hero, a Roman gladiator. Joe is determined to defeat Frankenstein. A resistance group led by Thomasina Paine plans to sabotage the race, kill most drivers, and take Frankenstein hostage. The group is assisted by Paine's granddaughter Annie Smith, Frankenstein's navigator. Despite a pirated broadcast by Paine, the government covers up the disruption and blames the French. Nero is killed by a bomb disguised as a baby, Matilda drives off a cliff following a fake detour, and Calamity Jane hits a landmine. Only Frankenstein and Joe remain. Annie discovers that Frankenstein's mask and disfigured face are a disguise; he is one of many wards of the state trained to race under that identity, secretly replaced when killed or mutilated to appear indestructible.

Production

Roger Corman wanted to make a futuristic action sports film to capitalize on the advance publicity of Rollerball (1975). He optioned Ib Melchior's short story 'The Racer' and hired Robert Thom to adapt it. Director Paul Bartel found the script unshootable, so Charles B. Griffith rewrote it. Corman considered the original treatment overly serious and 'kind of vile', reworking it to emphasize satire and camp. Bartel was hired based on his second unit work on Big Bad Mama (1974). Bartel later said that many of his guilty pleasures were removed by Corman and replaced with violence, though he still found a joke about the French amusing. Bartel recalled terrible script problems, David Carradine finishing his Kung Fu series before starting, and bad weather. He and Corman disagreed over comedy, with Corman removing many comedy scenes. At one point, Bartel considered replacing Carradine with Lee Majors, but they reconciled and influenced the ending. Corman disagreed with Bartel's idea of running over a reporter, suggesting instead that FBI agents shoot the reporter. When filming the ending, Bartel shot the version seen in the final print without filming Corman's version, as Carradine was not interested in the other ending.

Reception

The film earned $4.8 million in rentals in the United States according to Variety, though another account says $5.25 million; it actually grossed around $14 million from the U.S. and Canada in its first release. Contemporary reviews were mixed. Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times wrote that the film had nothing to say beyond the superficial about government or rebellion. Variety called it cartoonish but effective entertainment with black humor. Richard Combs of The Monthly Film Bulletin found the comic conceits too shaky to hold the movie together. Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave it one star out of four, calling it the goofiest and sleaziest film he had seen in five years. Tom Shales of The Washington Post praised it as one of the zippier B pictures of the year. Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times called it a fine little action picture with big ideas. In a February 2021 retrospective, James Berardinelli gave it 1 star out of 4, calling it bad. Roger Ebert gave the film zero stars, deriding its violence, but later named it as part of a great tradition of summer drive-in movies, though he did not disavow his original rating.

Other media

The Carmageddon video game series borrows heavily from the plot, characters, and car designs of Death Race 2000. A comic book sequel series titled Death Race 2020 was published from April to November 1995 by Roger Corman's Cosmic Comics imprint, written by Pat Mills with art by Kevin O'Neill and additional art by Trevor Goring. The series takes place 20 years after the film and deals with Frankenstein's return to the race, introducing new racers such as Von Dutch, the Alcoholic, Happy the Clown, Steppenwolf, Rick Rhesus, and Harry Carrie. The series lasted eight issues and was left unfinished.